The North Dakota Grain Growers Association (NDGGA) has decided to withdraw its membership from the National Association of Wheat Growers, effective June 30, 2019, the end of NAWG’s current fiscal year, says NAWG President Ben Scholz.
According to a statement from the NDGGA, the association made the decision "after months of careful consideration."
"Although we've enjoyed a beneficial partnership with NAWG since 1977, in recent years we've seen a decline in support for issues specifically affecting North Dakota," the statement read. "Considering North Dakota has consistenly paid some of the highest dues out of all states represented by NAWG, we believe we're no longer seeing an adequate return on investment and have decided not to renew our contract."
The NDGGA statement said NAWG still provides value to producers on a national level. "Our foremost focus is on North Dakota farmers, however, and at this time, we believe we can better reprsent their best interests by investing our resources elsewhere," the statement concludes.
NAWG's Scholz says despite tremendous effort and NAWG conducting hundreds of meetings with members of Congress and the Administration on behalf of all our states including North Dakota, the NDGGA leadership has still decided to leave NAWG.
"NAWG leadership and staff did everything possible to address NDGGA’s concerns, from private briefings to ramped up communications to our states to traveling to North Dakota with a third-party facilitator to address issues, and yet they have still decided to resign their membership," says Scholz. "As the president of a trade association, it always disappoints me when one of our members isn’t pleased with productivity."
Scholz says NAWG went above and beyond to meet the concerns of NDGGA by giving them a national voice on Capitol Hill.
"NDGGA chose to put their own priorities ahead of the national organization, which is not how a national association can run effectively," he says. "The past two years North Dakota put their interests ahead of all wheat growers across the country by withholding half their dues, making it difficult to carry out the overall mission of the organization.
“It's unfortunate that a major wheat-producing state, who provided unique insight into national policy and influenced others in the industry, won’t be moving forward with NAWG," he says.
